Are you frozen by a system, style or tradition?

Are you frozen by a system, style or tradition?

So many people think that we should always fit in a box or have some label attached to them, we are not our names or the job we do or the system, style or tradition of martial arts we practice.

We must resist the temptation to go along with such notions as

’’ It’s our style or my instructor said to do it like this.’’

Don’t forget the style, system or tradition is only someone else’s own ideas they are not your own, but if enough people follow them they become a style, system and tradition.

Speaking to many martial artists they are proud that they have kept the same exact system and style as taught to them by their masters. This is a shame as they have not developed it further or refined it to be more effective for their own body type, shape and abilities, you are not your instructor and you will have different attributes so your martial arts should reflect this.

Keeping in a box, style, system or tradition will only freeze our minds to past ideas and concepts and as we know nothing can grow on ice and you will start to develop the mental attitude of style, system, tradition paralysis and when this happens ideas cannot fully evolve or flow freely.

Now I am not saying that we should not have a structure when we first learn something new, you have to study the music structure/rules before you can start to make your own music, you have to do the drills to build the skills in martial arts so you then can forget about them but please don’t be bound by that structure for eternity because you have always done it that way. Man has been developing things since the beginning of time, starts with a wheel leading to a bicycle then a car then space rocket who knows where we will be in another 100 years, should we say let’s just stick to the wheel because it is tradition?

Successful martial artists know that things can always be improved so they look at ways to do things more efficiently using less energy and having more power.

Wally Jay (founder of small circle Jujitsu) said,

‘’It’s not how much strength we use but how little we use and still be able to control the person.’’ He was still controlling people well into his 90’s with no effort such was his refinement and development of his own way of doing martial arts.

Improve what you are already doing in your martial arts, don’t just collect more techniques, systems, traditions and labels.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” Shunryu Suzuki

Think free your mind and don’t freeze your mind.

Thank you GM Angelo

Filipino Kyusho – Traditionally Evolving